Cardinal Pacelli, the Secretary of State, was elected pope.

The death of Pope Pius XI plunged the Roman Catholic Church for the second time in the 20th century into a papal conclave on the brink of a world war.

As with Pope Pius X when he died in 1914 Pius XI was seen as a blunt-spoken no-nonsense pontiff. As in 1914 the cardinals, assembled in the Sistine Chapel, decided that they needed a soft-spoken diplomat to guide them through the forthcoming war.

For only the second time up to that point (the other being in 1914) a cardinal widely viewed as papabile was the person chosen. Eugenio Cardinal Pacelli, the Cardinal Secretary of State was chosen as pontiff and took the regnal name of Pope Pius XII.

Controversially, the new pope adopted a more cautious diplomatic approach in his relations with the major powers than had his blunt predecessor.